CoolHandDuke thedubyahatingman
2004-07-24 03:32:07 UTC
Excerpts from "Bush On The Couch: Inside the Mind of the President," by Justin
M. Frank, M.D. (New York: ReganBooks, 2004):
From pages 38-39 --
Considering the uproar over whether or not Bill Clinton inhaled
marijuana in his twenties, it's remarkable how little attention has been paid
to Bush's twenty-plus years of problem drinking. From his days at prep school
(where he was under the legal age) through his fortieth birthday, Bush
regularly used and abused alcohol to soothe his anxious soul. He has in various
instances described his drinking as heavy, daily, and as an interference with
his family life. Perhaps most notably, alcohol fueled a now famous 1973
showdown between Bush and his father. After learning that George W. had been
driving drunk with his teenaged brother in the car, the elder Bush summoned the
intoxicated 26-year-old to the den of his Texas home. Emboldened by liquor,
George W. "rammed through the garbage cans with his car[,] walked in the front
door of the house," and challenged his father "to go mano a mano right here" as
other family watched. Three years later, George W. was once again caught
driving drunk near his father's turf -- this time in Maine, when he was
arrested, at the age of thirty, for driving under the influence. When the
incident became public days before the 2000 election, the media's treatment of
the story somehow focused more on the possibility of Democratic dirty tricks
than on the fact that Bush had managed to conceal the most dramatic evidence of
the effects drinking has had on his life -- even if another decade would pass
before it got bad enough for him to quit.
Is Bush an alcoholic? He has publicly denied it, telling the "Washington
Post," "I don't think I was clinically an alcoholic; I didn't have the genuine
addiction," in July 1999. "I've had friends who were, you know, very addicted .
. . and they required hitting bottom [and] going to AA. I don't think that was
my case." Still, according to former speechwriter David Frum, after reaching
the Oval Office, Bush asked for the prayers of religious leaders, telling them,
"I had a drinking problem. Right now I should be in a bar, not the Oval
Office."
Though a driving under the influence (DUI) arrest has inspired many a
drinker to admit a problem and seek help in stopping, there are plenty of
drivers with DUI citations who do not identify themselves as alcoholic. Many
recovering alcoholics regard alcoholism as a treatable (though not curable)
disease that can only be diagnosed by the alcoholic himself. (This may have
something to do with the fact that admission of one's alcoholism is considered
a necessary first step toward recovery.) Until the heavy drinker describes
himself as an alcoholic, he suffers from a condition for which there is no
treatment. The American Society of Addiction Medicine, on the other hand,
offers less room for self-determination: Its definition holds that alcoholism
is "characterized by . . . impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with
the drug alcohol, use of alcohol, despite adverse consequences, and distortions
in thinking, MOST NOTABLY DENIAL" [emphasis mine].
The historical record, along with Bush's few published comments on his
drinking, make clear that he drank in a way that fit most if not all of those
criteria. But while it is valuable to know whether or not he was or is an
alcoholic, the more pressing question involves the influence his years of heavy
drinking and subsequent abstinence still have on him and those around him.
Bush's drinking history compels us to consider the prospect that his thinking,
behavior, and relationships with his family and the world may be deeply
influenced by an alcoholic personality, one that is continually trying --
allegedly successfully, though possibly with reduced capacities -- to keep the
compulsion to drink under control.
[...]
From pages 80-81 --
As a high school student, George W. Bush reportedly sold fake ID cards
to his fellow Andover students, making a personal profit while helping others
violate the drinking-age laws. But it wasn't until he went to Yale that he
began running into direct trouble with the law -- even as he drew closer to the
law-making establishment. In late 1966, weeks after his father was elected to
the House of Representatives, he was arrested for disorderly conduct in New
Haven. The following fall -- a time when he was deeply involved with his secret
society Skull and Bones, which boasts countless leaders of industry and
government among its members -- he was detained and questioned by Princeton
police for similar disorderly behavior. That fall also brought controversy to
the DKE fraternity, of which he was president, for its practice of burning
pledges with a hot branding iron. The imbroglio made the pages of the "New York
Times," where Bush was quoted as dismissing the wound as "only a cigarette
burn."
In later years, Bush would downplay these incidents as harmless college
pranks. And his denials might be less troubling if they didn't fit so neatly
into his lifelong pattern of implying that he has never done anything wrong.
Dodging responsibility can be seen as a typical component of his problems with
alcohol, which no doubt played a central role in all three circumstances. For
George W. Bush, drinking and evading responsibility have always coexisted -- a
fact that became dramatically clear when his DUI arrest was made public in the
closing days of the 2000 presidential race. As reporters scrambled to
investigate his background more closely, parsing his on-the-record remarks
about his past, they discovered that he had spoken about his previous arrest
record with extreme care -- in an obvious (if ultimately unsuccessful) attempt
to avoid being caught in a lie.
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
George W. Bush Is A Liar And A Fraud
http://www.johnkerry.com
Vote Kerry/Edwards 2004!
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
M. Frank, M.D. (New York: ReganBooks, 2004):
From pages 38-39 --
Considering the uproar over whether or not Bill Clinton inhaled
marijuana in his twenties, it's remarkable how little attention has been paid
to Bush's twenty-plus years of problem drinking. From his days at prep school
(where he was under the legal age) through his fortieth birthday, Bush
regularly used and abused alcohol to soothe his anxious soul. He has in various
instances described his drinking as heavy, daily, and as an interference with
his family life. Perhaps most notably, alcohol fueled a now famous 1973
showdown between Bush and his father. After learning that George W. had been
driving drunk with his teenaged brother in the car, the elder Bush summoned the
intoxicated 26-year-old to the den of his Texas home. Emboldened by liquor,
George W. "rammed through the garbage cans with his car[,] walked in the front
door of the house," and challenged his father "to go mano a mano right here" as
other family watched. Three years later, George W. was once again caught
driving drunk near his father's turf -- this time in Maine, when he was
arrested, at the age of thirty, for driving under the influence. When the
incident became public days before the 2000 election, the media's treatment of
the story somehow focused more on the possibility of Democratic dirty tricks
than on the fact that Bush had managed to conceal the most dramatic evidence of
the effects drinking has had on his life -- even if another decade would pass
before it got bad enough for him to quit.
Is Bush an alcoholic? He has publicly denied it, telling the "Washington
Post," "I don't think I was clinically an alcoholic; I didn't have the genuine
addiction," in July 1999. "I've had friends who were, you know, very addicted .
. . and they required hitting bottom [and] going to AA. I don't think that was
my case." Still, according to former speechwriter David Frum, after reaching
the Oval Office, Bush asked for the prayers of religious leaders, telling them,
"I had a drinking problem. Right now I should be in a bar, not the Oval
Office."
Though a driving under the influence (DUI) arrest has inspired many a
drinker to admit a problem and seek help in stopping, there are plenty of
drivers with DUI citations who do not identify themselves as alcoholic. Many
recovering alcoholics regard alcoholism as a treatable (though not curable)
disease that can only be diagnosed by the alcoholic himself. (This may have
something to do with the fact that admission of one's alcoholism is considered
a necessary first step toward recovery.) Until the heavy drinker describes
himself as an alcoholic, he suffers from a condition for which there is no
treatment. The American Society of Addiction Medicine, on the other hand,
offers less room for self-determination: Its definition holds that alcoholism
is "characterized by . . . impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with
the drug alcohol, use of alcohol, despite adverse consequences, and distortions
in thinking, MOST NOTABLY DENIAL" [emphasis mine].
The historical record, along with Bush's few published comments on his
drinking, make clear that he drank in a way that fit most if not all of those
criteria. But while it is valuable to know whether or not he was or is an
alcoholic, the more pressing question involves the influence his years of heavy
drinking and subsequent abstinence still have on him and those around him.
Bush's drinking history compels us to consider the prospect that his thinking,
behavior, and relationships with his family and the world may be deeply
influenced by an alcoholic personality, one that is continually trying --
allegedly successfully, though possibly with reduced capacities -- to keep the
compulsion to drink under control.
[...]
From pages 80-81 --
As a high school student, George W. Bush reportedly sold fake ID cards
to his fellow Andover students, making a personal profit while helping others
violate the drinking-age laws. But it wasn't until he went to Yale that he
began running into direct trouble with the law -- even as he drew closer to the
law-making establishment. In late 1966, weeks after his father was elected to
the House of Representatives, he was arrested for disorderly conduct in New
Haven. The following fall -- a time when he was deeply involved with his secret
society Skull and Bones, which boasts countless leaders of industry and
government among its members -- he was detained and questioned by Princeton
police for similar disorderly behavior. That fall also brought controversy to
the DKE fraternity, of which he was president, for its practice of burning
pledges with a hot branding iron. The imbroglio made the pages of the "New York
Times," where Bush was quoted as dismissing the wound as "only a cigarette
burn."
In later years, Bush would downplay these incidents as harmless college
pranks. And his denials might be less troubling if they didn't fit so neatly
into his lifelong pattern of implying that he has never done anything wrong.
Dodging responsibility can be seen as a typical component of his problems with
alcohol, which no doubt played a central role in all three circumstances. For
George W. Bush, drinking and evading responsibility have always coexisted -- a
fact that became dramatically clear when his DUI arrest was made public in the
closing days of the 2000 presidential race. As reporters scrambled to
investigate his background more closely, parsing his on-the-record remarks
about his past, they discovered that he had spoken about his previous arrest
record with extreme care -- in an obvious (if ultimately unsuccessful) attempt
to avoid being caught in a lie.
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
George W. Bush Is A Liar And A Fraud
http://www.johnkerry.com
Vote Kerry/Edwards 2004!
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+